Alexandria

The City of Alexandria has been a smart growth community for over 200 years, with its grid of walkable streets and mix of residential, civic, and business activity. Recognizing that the only way to deal with modern traffic and its limited land area is to apply a similar approach today, the city is focused on creating walking and biking-friendly, mixed-use, transit-oriented redevelopment.

Alexandria is making great strides with investment in new transit corridors and “complete streets” with bike lanes, better sidewalks, and safer crossings. More bike lanes, in particular, will help support the growing number of people who bike to work and around town, including those using Alexandria’s new Capital Bikeshare stations. Redevelopment plans are in place for Braddock Metro, Potomac Yard, the Beauregard Corridor, and parts of the Eisenhower Valley. With the continued attractiveness of the city, Alexandria is also seeking to partner with developers to preserve and expand the supply of affordable housing.

King Street Bike Lanes & Pedestrian Improvements

The City of Alexandria has installed pedestrian and bicycle improvements, including a dedicated bike lane, on a segment of King Street west of the Metro station to Janney’s Lane. The planned improvements are part of Alexandria’s Complete Streets policy, and are timed in conjunction with repaving of this stretch of King Street.

About the improvements

The improvements run from the west side of the King St Metro station up the hill to Janney’s Lane. City staff originally planned to add the improvements with the repaving and repair of this stretch, scheduled for fall 2013 or spring 2014. City staff began a public outreach process on its original plan in June 2013, meeting with the public and stakeholders at least seven times. Based on public input, planners presented a compromise plan at a strongly-attended November 25 Traffic and Parking Board meeting.

The compromise plan replaced some bike lanes with sharrows to preserve 10 of 37 underutilized parking spaces along the stretch. While the compromise plan was a strong disappointment to Alexandria’s pedestrian and cycling community, we collectively decided to endorse the plan as a step in the right direction while still responding to opponents’ concerns.

In late December, Transportation Director Rich Baier announced that the city would move forward with the plan. Opponents have since invoked a provision of the city code that allows residents to appeal any decision altering public parking to the traffic and parking board, which in turn sends a recommendation to city council.

In March, Alexandria City Council passed the bicycle and pedestrian improvement 6-0. By early summer, the repainting of the stretch to include bike lanes and new crosswalks, had been completed.

Expanding Bikeshare

The growth of bicycling and Capital Bikeshare’s incredible success in our region have opened the door to expand bike lanes and bikeshare to even more neighborhoods and jurisdictions in the area. These investments provide a great transportation option that can reduce traffic, improve our health, and strengthen neighborhood retail — but they need our support.

In May, we rallied supporters in Alexandria, who sent dozens of emails to the Alexandria City Council ahead of its May 6 vote to double Capital Bikeshare’s presence in Alexandria.

Alexandrians can now look forward to more Capital Bikeshare stations in Old Town, Del Ray, and Carlisle. We hope the future holds more dedicated bike lanes, too.

Waterfront Redevelopment

We’ve followed the debate, considered the arguments, and reviewed the data. After careful consideration, CSG has announced its support for zoning changes to allow the Alexandria Waterfront Redevelopment plan to move forward. The zoning changes allow the city more control over development with the legal clearance to go forward with or without the plan – and we believe the plan will lead to a better outcome in the long run.

Beauregard Corridor

Alexandria’s Beauregard Corridor is a neighborhood of garden apartments and traditional office-park buildings that just completed a major public planning review. The corridor represented a significant planning challenge, given the new Department of Defense Mark Center and past zoning decisions that made the redevelopment of the existing garden apartments inevitable. We participated in planning meetings over a two-year period, reviewed the complex issues and determined that the city’s proposed plan was the best way to go.

Working with our volunteer activists and consulting with affordable housing advocates, we urged our supporters and partners to speak up for the Beauregard plan. The city approved the plan in May 2012 and the result will be a mixed-use, walkable neighborhood with transit, shopping and service improvements. Thanks to advocacy efforts and city officials, the plan will include 800 long-term committed affordable apartments to make sure the area remains an inclusive one.

Affordable Housing in Alexandria

Alexandria has lost a large number of market-rate affordable housing units amid the boom in demand to live closer to the core of the region. The city has been studying ways to preserve existing affordable housing and to add new affordable units in conjunction with redevelopment, including using its housing trust fund and partnerships with the private sector. The Beauregard Corridor plan will team the developers and the city to provide 800 units of long-term, committed affordable housing. Separately, the city is redeveloping public housing and under Resolution 830 mandates one-for-one replacement of public housing units in redevelopment projects.

Smart Growth Projects in Alexandria

In recent years, Alexandria has partnered with the community in creating transit-oriented plans for a number of areas in the city. In addition to the recent Beauregard plan, the city has approved new plans for Potomac Yard, Braddock Metro, and Eisenhower East. Meanwhile, the future of Landmark Mall and Eisenhower West are still being evaluated.

The new Potomac Yard plan improves upon an older plan while maintaining the walkable grid of streets, adding to the Route 1 transit corridor (either Bus Rapid Transit or Streetcar), and potentially relocating the future Metro station to a site closest to the areas of highest planned density. The Braddock Road Metro neighborhood plan is already resulting in new residential and retail projects transforming an area of warehouses into a revitalized community with public spaces and parks, and pedestrian and bicycle-friendly streets. The Eisenhower East plan is expanding upon the Carlyle redevelopment and bringing new residents and retail life to the area.